I've been having keyboard trouble with VDMSound (I'm pretty sure that VDMSound is responsible seeing as neither XPs emulation or Virtual PC seem to show it but since XP doesn't have AdLib emulation and Virtual PCs sucks, I'd really like to make this work with VDMS) myself but nothing like that...

In my case, VDMSound seems to add a "delay" to the keyboard input in SkyRoads (and maybe other games too, I haven't really checked.) causing me to miss a jump and crash more times than I can count. Its gotten annoying to the point that if VDMS's AdLib emulation (all I play this game for is the music. It has one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard, even for 8-bit AdLib) wasn't the best out of everything I've tried, I wouldn't be using it.

LSD wrote:

In my case, VDMSound seems to add a "delay" to the keyboard input in SkyRoads...

This sounds like a timing issue. Have you spoke with Vlad about it? (did a search for Skyroad and came up with nothing)

We also need him on the extented characters issue as well. Try turning on the log and log all warnings and errors, then posting the log as an attachment here.

Update: LSD have you tried Skyroads on DosBox?

VDMSound does absolutely nothing with keyboard. Maybe Windows screws up the keyboard if it is sensitive to anything other than Windows (i.e. VDMSound) running in a DOS box, but that would be it. Try disabling NumLock (don't ask me why, I have no idea, but it works with some) and, whenever possible in these kinds of situations, use the joystick emulation.

V.

hobz wrote:

It seems to "choose" characters for the keyboard input making it impossible to write anything sensible exept extended characters.

I forgot to ask, what is it that you're trying to run? Does this only happen with one title? If you run it without VDSMound, none of this happens (make sure you're not starting it with the VDMSound shortcut).

The program I'm trying to run i Master of Magic.
The really weird part is that when you enter your name for your wizard, the keyboard works fine, no problem. But as soon as the game begins, the keyboard goes AWOL.

Since I can't run the game without VDMSound (I right-click the executable and choose the first run with VDMSound), I don't know if it is VDMSound who, in this case, messes with the keyboard.

But! I have tried to run Sim City with and without VDMSound, and I get erratic keyboard response when I use VDMSound!

Could it be a memory issue? I note this because Master of Magic will not run (due to lack of conventional memory) if I add music, but not if just sound is added.

Thanks to all who answered so far. Fast feedback is always nice.

Weird. I've never had problems with MoM or SimCity (other than coxing extra RAM for MoM to play nice with music). I run both with sound and music (though I turned off sound effecs in MoM cuz I actually WANT to have combat 😜).

My system: P3-800, 192MB Ram, SBLive! 5.1, WinXP Pro.

I believe "Master of Magic" is one of the more "persnickety" titles when running under a NT OS. Perform a quick search on "Master of Magic" on the board and you'll find that most people seem to be able to run, but it still has various issues. Primarily, sound effects causing delays during combat. Will have to get back with you on this...

psz:
My system is quite similar to yours, psz, though I have 256Mb RAM and a SB128.
How do you launch your DOS-applications/games?

Not So Good:
Sounds great!

I wonder why there is so much delay when using sound effects?

Ok... Here's to all the people trying to get MoM working with sound and music (THIS DOES NOT FIX THE COMBAT PROBLEM!!! I turn sound effects off *OR* run the stat based combat instead)

Command Line: %VDMSPath%\VDMSRun.bat magic.exe
Starting Dir: c:\MPS\MAGIC (Edit obviously)

Memory: All set to auto

Now, here's the fun part. Under Advanced in the properties, you can set Compatible Hardware Timer and custom Autoexec.bat and config.sys files. I created one of each. Here they are :->

Autoexec.bat:

@echo off

Yeah, that's it. This way *NOTHING* gets loaded, yet since the file is there, it FORCES nothing to get loaded.

Config.sys:

device=%SystemRoot%\system32\himem.sys
files=35
dos=high,umb

Ok, hope this gets everyone up and running. Maybe I should put this some place for future reference :->

psz, if that works, I'll add it to Deep Thought.

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

Update: LSD have you tried Skyroads on DosBox?

I tried with DosBox 0.55 (is there anying in 0.56 that'll make a serious difference) and while the lag wasn't evident, the window you're forced to play in is unbearably small (and maximising it slows the game to a crawl) and the AdLib emulation doesn't sound as good.

I tried the NumLock suggestion but I'm not quite sure if it really made a difference...

LSD wrote:

I tried the NumLock suggestion but I'm not quite sure if it really made a difference...

Then, assuming it's a timing problem, disable everything except for AdLib and/or SB (i.e. disable joystick), maybe even change the DMA period to a more forgiving pair of values such as 15/15 or 15/20 instead of 5/15.

V.

There's a TONNE of new stuff in .56. (REALSound support, for one.) Also, maximizing the window by hitting "maximize" DOES make it run really slow. The solution is to do a proper full-screen maximize by hitting the LEFT Alt key (I couldn't figure this one out for a while 😜) and Enter. Then it's happy. And not slow. And fullscreen. 😀

vladr wrote:

Then, assuming it's a timing problem, disable everything except for AdLib and/or SB (i.e. disable joystick), maybe even change the DMA period to a more forgiving pair of values such as 15/15 or 15/20 instead of 5/15.

V.

I tried this and while the delay went away in varying degrees it came at the expense of the sound timing varying all over the place (Oddly enough, the Launchpad didn't hang this game up. I'll look into this, it seems that the thing the two games that it does hang up have in common is that they're build engine games...). I'll keep fiddling, I'll probably stumble across some good settings eventually.

edit: I also downloaded DosBox .56 but it won't start properly. It says that it doesn't have a config file and is using the default settings, enables the joystick emulation and then says "Unsupported feature" and then bugs out. Thinking it may have been a result of me extracting .56 right over the top of .55 I deleted all the files and then tried again. Same thing. Any ideas here?

LSD wrote:

I also downloaded DosBox .56 but it won't start properly. It says that it doesn't have a config file and is using the default settings,...

You can pretty much disregard that message. As it says, it will use a default group of settings that work well.

Thinking it may have been a result of me extracting .56 right over the top of .55

To be on the safe side, don't do that. The "unknown" factor tends to skyrocket.

Any ideas here?

Go back to v0.55. There were real improvements in v0.56, but some "breakage" as well.

Set your screenmode to 640x480 (or as small as you can make it) before you start DosBox. Before you start the game, hit Alt-Enter to go Full-screen. Try increasing the emulation speed by hitting Ctrl-F12.

That's LEFT-Alt+Enter, heh

Just curious as to wether or not the config stuff I listed for MoM worked for anyone else? Yay? Nay? Anyone? Beuller?